Author: Thorsteinn Mar

Many roleplayers frown upon railroading and in the last few years the sandbox setup for adventures and narratives has become something that many game masters strive for. But is railroading always bad? Are plots that are heavily linear worse than plots of sandbox modules? Last week I ran a game in a high school, as part of a fantasy and science fiction course. During a break in the game, the teacher in the course who partook in the game told me about his favourite roleplaying session. It happened to have been run by a fellow Yawning Portal author, Helgi,...

Creating suspense in roleplaying games is not easy. Making sure that your narrative contains a build-up and climaxes in the end takes years of practice. Here are a few tips. Atmosphere and suspense are something that most game masters strife to attain every time they raise the screen in front of them. After all, it helps with player immersion and makes it easier for the players to get in the right mood for the game. Having your players eyeing every roll, fearing for their characters and even getting so excited they start cheering like football players every time they...

In almost every fantasy setting you have a stark distinction between good and evil, the light side and the dark side or chaos and law. In most cases the PC’s are meant to fight the evil and do good, or to play the heroes that eventually will save the day, one way or another. Perhaps one of the oldest tropes of fantasy roleplaying is the cliche about the evil overlord. The one who is evil incarnate and even before the narrative starts everyone, both players and characters alike, know and accept this. Sauron, Iuz, Kalak of Tyr, Takhisis and...